Monday April 11th a meeting took place at the Cascade Locks Town Hall and members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs of Oregon arrived on short notice in traditional longhouse dress to fiercely defend the waters of our home, the Columbia River.

The Cascade Locks city council voted against a resolution [6-1] that would have prevented Nestle International Waters from having rights to Oxbow Springs, the headwaters of Herman Creek. The Cascade Locks city council officially endorsed Nestle to open a water bottling facility in the Locks. Read the rest of this entry →

March 29, 2016 — George George Sr., whose Nadleh Whut’en hereditary leadership name is Yutunayeh, signs a water policy declaration that covers the traditional territory of his First Nation and that of the Stellat’en. Nadleh Whut’en chief Martin Louie looks on. Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun [PNG Merlin Archive]

By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver SunMarch 30, 2016

The hereditary leaders of two northern B.C. First Nations proclaimed the first traditional aboriginal water laws in the province, which could have implications for industrial development including mining and LNG pipeline projects.

The Nadleh Whut’en and Stellat’en First Nation traditional leaders declared on Wednesday no development would take place on their traditional territories in the Northern Interior unless the water laws were followed.

Community elder Grace Redsky from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation performed a water healing ceremony at a man-made channel made to support Winnipeg’s water system which has cut them off from the mainland Thursday, June 25, 2015. (John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

by Chinta Puxley, The Canadian Press/CTV News, October 5, 2015

WINNIPEG — A reserve cut off from the mainland and under a boil-water advisory for almost two decades is taking its case to the United Nations.

Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, which straddles the Manitoba-Ontario boundary, became isolated a century ago during construction of an aqueduct which carries water to Winnipeg. The reserve has no all-weather road and has been without clean water for 17 years. Read the rest of this entry →

The Athabasca River, highway construction and suburbs seen from a helicopter in Fort McMurray, Alta., on July 10, 2012. Water for the oilsands industry comes mainly from northern Alberta’s Athabasca River, and oilsands account for 72 per cent of estimated water use from the river. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

‘The river is much more variable than you would think based on measurements since 1950s’

By Emily Chung, CBC News, Sept 21, 2015

The river that provides water to the oilsands industry is much more prone to multi-year droughts than modern records show, suggesting that the industry’s current level of water use may not be sustainable, a new study suggests.

The oilsands industry needs 3.1 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of crude oil from oilsands mining and 0.4 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of crude oil from oilsands drilling, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON — Drought-stricken California is not the only place draining underground aquifers in the hunt for fresh water.

It’s happening across the world, according to two new studies by U.S. researchers released Tuesday.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs. Thirteen of 37 aquifers fell at rates that put them into the most troubled category.

Entangled in the heart of an arduous century long battle over water rights in the Upper Klamath Basin, is the struggle of the Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin Peoples for cultural survivance.

Our elders have always told us that water is life, water is priceless. Our water is so sacred it should never be quantified, compromised or negotiated.
But what happens to the future of a culture, whose spiritual foundation is water, when even to tribal negotiators, the priceless becomes a mere commodity? Read the rest of this entry →